Thursday Thirteen - Local Ministries

Colorado Springs is home to more than 100 nonprofit Christian organizations. While there are dozens of smaller ones, here are a few you might recognize.



1. Compassion International. This Christian ministry began 55 years ago to help Korean war orphans. Today, Compassion reaches 800,000 children in 24 countries. We toured the facility two years ago with our local hs group, which prompted us to sponsor a child. Compassion is also a top scorer on Charity Navigator, a well known charity watchdog group.



2. Focus on the Family. One of the top tourist attractions in Colorado Springs, this 49 acre campus includes three large buildings, and the Welcome Center houses a 10,000 sf bookstore that's open to the public. When the kids were younger, we'd often visit Whit's End, an indoor children's playland.

3. The Navigators. This stunning location is headquarters for a staff of 4,000 that serve in more than 100 countries. It's also home to NavPress Publishing. Trevor attended day camp here last year, and Holly's riding instructor established Eagle Lake Horse Camp in 1994, another ministry of The Navigators.


4. Young Life. Active in all 50 states and 53 countries, last year, YL reached over 120,000 middle school, high school, and college aged kids through its weekly club meetings.




5. International Bible Society. IBS has translated and published Bibles in more than 600 languages. It ships an average of 150 tons of material from this warehouse each month. It has a great little store too, with a wonderful selection of NIV Bibles. We even bought a Spanish New Testament here a few years ago!




6. Cook Communications. While best known for Sunday School Curriculum, I often read books published by this group.



7. Christian Booksellers Association. CBA exists to support, encourage and unite retailers of Christian merchandise.




8. Every Home for Christ has presented more than 2 billion booklets in 192 countries since its inception 50 years ago. Its goal is to share the gospel to every home in the world. I thought it was really cool that employees, during construction of this new building, placed scripture in the unfinished walls, writing on the beams. The construction workers were held to strict behavior standards at the jobsite. The business worked diligently with the neighborhood to create a building that caused as little interruption as possible, including lowering the height of the building and moving a planned driveway to a busier street.



9. Association of Christian Schools International. Headquartered here, ACSI supports 5500 evangelical Christian schools in 105 countries, representing 1,180,000 students.




10. Christian and Missionary Alliance. The headquarters of this denomination, which emphasizes foreign missions. C&MA has 500,000 members with involvement in 81 countries.



11. The World Prayer Center. Built in 1998 by Pastor Ted Haggard, The World Prayer Center exists to pray for the nations of the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.



12. BASE Institute. Founder Bob Cornuke has authored several books detailing his many expeditions around the world searching for lost locations in the Bible. I've read a couple of his books and really liked them.




13. Andrew Wommack Ministries. Television. Radio. Seminars. Bible College. Andrew Wommack potentially reaches 380 million people around the world.




Nestled at the foot of Pikes Peak, with gorgeous scenery, fabulous weather, and great neighbors (like me!), it's easy to see the appeal. This is the view from Compassion.

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And I can say that this post took me forever to write! The time stamp is when I started . . . Yawn.